Improvement of Solar Cell Performance After Oxygen Removal by Electron Beam Melting

Two 450 kg multicrystalline silicon ingots were obtained by mixing and melting high purity silicon and silicon from the edges and the bottom of the casted ingots together in a casting furnace. For one of the ingot, the silicon from casted ingots was refined in an electron beam melting furnace to remove oxygen. The oxygen content was reduced from 10 to less than 0.0517 ppmw when silicon was refined at 500 kW with removal efficiency up to 99.429% in the most areas. The life time of the ingot after oxygen removal was measured to be far better than another one, whereas in the central parts the value was almost 6.7 µs. The efficiencies of both solar cells were initially 17.55% but after 4 h decreased to 17.05% and 15.55%, respectively. The solar cell after oxygen removal shows a better performance in degradation.     

SAR target recognition using behaviour library of different shapes in different incidence angles and polarisations

Target recognition is one of the most important issues in the interpretation of the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. Modelling, analysis, and recognition of the effects of influential parameters in the SAR can provide a better understanding of the SAR imaging systems, and therefore facilitates the interpretation of the produced images. Influential parameters in SAR images can be divided into five general categories of radar, radar platform, channel, imaging region, and processing section, each of which has different physical, structural, hardware, and software sub-parameters with clear roles in the finally formed images. In this paper, for the first time, a behaviour library that includes the effects of polarisation, incidence angle, and shape of targets, as radar and imaging region sub-parameters, in the SAR images are extracted. This library shows that the created pattern for each of cylindrical, conical, and cubic shapes is unique, and due to their unique properties these types of shapes can be recognised in the SAR images. This capability is applied to data acquired with the Canadian RADARSAT1 satellite.     

A Fuzzy Congestion Control Protocol Based on Active Queue Management in Wireless Sensor Networks with Medical Applications

Wireless Personal Communications - Wireless Sensor Network has been widely used in a variety of applications such as; medical, agriculture, military, monitoring environment and so on. In healthcare...     

Analysis of a joint entry- and distance-based cordon pricing scheme: a dynamic modeling approach

Railway Engineering Science - Transportation demand management (TDM) covers strategies for reducing traffic congestion within the affected urban areas. Congestion pricing includes a branch of TDM...     

A review on current research trends in electrical discharge machining (EDM)

Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is one of the earliest non-traditional machining processes. EDM process is based on thermoelectric energy between the work piece and an electrode. A pulse discharge occurs in a small gap between the work piece and the electrode and removes the unwanted material from the parent metal through melting and vaporising. The electrode and the work piece must have electrical conductivity in order to generate the spark. There are various types of products which can be produced using EDM such as dies and moulds. Parts of aerospace, automotive industry and surgical components can be finished by EDM. This paper reviews the research trends in EDM on ultrasonic vibration, dry EDM machining, EDM with powder additives, EDM in water and modeling technique in predicting EDM performances.     

An integrated interlinking converter with DC-link voltage balancing capability for bipolar hybrid microgrid

Electrical Engineering - The bipolar hybrid microgrid is a newly emerged structure which has gained increasing attention during the last decades. The heart of this structure is the interlinking...     

Design and implementation of a new four-switch modified quasi Z-source inverter with improved space vector control method

This paper proposes a novel cost-effective feature as a three-phase four-switch inverter utilizing a modified quasi Z-source (MQZs) network. This inverter exploits a pulse-width modulation (PWM) control strategy based on developed space vectors to provide balanced three-phase output voltages and currents. It also has many applications such as the three-phase induction motor (IM) with adjustable speed drive (ASD) fed by a DC and/or rectified AC supply. Unlike some other similar four-switch inverters or converters, which can only work in step down (buck) mode or step up (boost) mode, this inverter can operate in both modes that depend on switching signals and due to adjusting the zero shoot-through (Zsh-th) duty cycle. It also decreases the total harmonic distortions (THD) of output voltages and currents. The MQZs inverter reduces the switching losses and the cost of topology in comparison with the conventional six-switch topologies. The utilized control strategy can work well without any extra filtering circuit in DC side to eliminate the effect of the DC-bus voltage ripples on the inverter output currents and voltages. The experimental results are found closely analogous and confirm the aforementioned features of the proposed topology compared with other traditional topologies, although the inverter output filter is a conventional LC filter.     

Influence of reverse yielding on residual stresses induced by autofrettage

The paper investigates the influence of reverse yielding on residual stresses induced by autofrettage. On the basis of reverse loading tests, a material model is developed and implemented into analytical procedures capable of treating the elasto-plastic deformation behaviour of thick-walled tubes during both loading and unloading phases. The results show that residual hoop stresses are drastically reduced near the tube bore as compared with residual stresses obtained from conventional isotropic hardening analysis. Pure kinematic hardening analysis is also shown to overestimate residual hoop stress induced by autofrettage.     

Microwave absorption properties of double‐layer nanocomposites based on polypyrrole/natural rubber

Thin flexible double‐layer microwave absorbers have been fabricated based on polypyrrole (PP)/natural rubber (NR) nanocomposites and their reflection loss characteristics were studied in the range of 8–18 GHz. The PP‐NR matrix was prepared from PP and NR in the ratio of 15:85. The polymers used in this work not only serve as the matrix but also improve the microwave absorption properties. The first layer or impedance matching layer which is comprised of graphite, Fe₃O₄, and TiO₂ nanoparticles in PP‐NR transmits the electromagnetic (EM) wave without reflection. The second layer which is made up of PP‐NR filled with Fe₃O₄ disperses the EM wave energy. The design of a double‐layer nanocomposite is a method to match the wave impedance, enhance wave absorption ability, and broaden the absorption frequencies. In order to achieve high absorption properties, the EM parameters such as permittivity, permeability, and thickness were controlled precisely according to quarter‐wave plate. The morphology, absorption properties, scattering parameters, thermal and wetting characteristics of double‐layer nanocomposites were investigated. The minimum reflection loss (R_L) was ?32 dB at 12.1 GHz and the absorbing bandwidth in which the R_L < ?10 dB was 9 GHz for optimum specimen with 2 mm thickness. For this specimen, the contact angle was equal to 118.7° with water as the liquid. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 46565.     

Modification of Magnetite Cellulose Nanoparticles via Click Reaction for use in Controlled Drug Delivery

Superparamagnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (MNPs) were functionalized by modified cellulose. The modified cellulose was synthesized through bromoacetylation of cellulose (BACell) followed by the substitution of sodium azide to form BACell-N₃. The remaining methylene bromide groups on BACell-N₃ was further reacted with the MNPs to form Fe₃O₄/Cell-N₃. Then propargyl alcohol (PA) was immobilized on the azide-terminated Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles through copper (I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (click reaction) to form Fe₃O₄/Cell/TAA nanoparticles. Doxorubicin (DOX) was loaded on prepared nanoparticles and release profiles of the DOX as a model drug from the Fe₃O₄/Cell/TAA nanoparticles and its loading capacity were determined by UV–Vis absorption at λ_max 483?nm.